Directive 2003/85/EC sets out the minimum control measures to be applied in the event of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and certain preventive measures aimed at increasing the awareness and preparedness of the competent authorities and the farming community concerning that disease.

The preventive measures set out in Directive 2003/85/EC include the requirement that the handling of live foot-and-mouth disease virus for research, diagnosis or vaccine manufacturing is carried out only in approved laboratories listed in Annex XI to that Directive.

The Netherlands has submitted a request to the Commission to change the name of its national laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease listed in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC to ‘Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR), Lelystad’, due to organisational changes.

Belgium has also submitted a request to the Commission to change the name of its national laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease listed in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC. The Belgian national laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease, the Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre (CODA-CERVA), has now become part of the new Belgian federal research centre, Sciensano, following a merge of the CODA-CERVA and the Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), which took effect on 1 April 2018. Sciensano has taken over all the rights and duties of its predecessors, including those of the CODA-CERVA.

Greece has submitted a request to the Commission to complete the name of its national laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease listed in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC, which is also responsible for the diagnosis of rickettsial infections.

The Pirbright Institute, which is located in the United Kingdom, provides the services of a national reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease to Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and it is duly listed as such in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC. As a consequence of the United Kingdom's notification in accordance with Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, the United Kingdom will no longer be a Member State of the European Union as of 30 March 2019. In accordance with Article 68(2), the Pirbright Institute may no longer provide the services of a national reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease to Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden after the date of 29 March 2019.

For the reasons of legal certainty, it is important to keep the list of national laboratories for foot-and-mouth disease set out in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC updated. Therefore, it is necessary to amend the name of the respective national laboratories in Belgium, in the Netherlands and in Greece and to indicate the date of withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union as the date until which the Pirbright Institute may provide the services of a national reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease to other Member States and until which other Member State may use the services of the Pirbright institute as a national reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease.

Following organisational changes affecting the laboratory authorised to handle live foot-and-mouth disease virus for vaccine production listed in Part B of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC, the Netherlands has submitted a request to the Commission to change the name of that laboratory situated on its territory to ‘Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Netherlands BV’.

Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC should therefore be replaced accordingly.

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1362 designated the consortium ANSES & CODA-CERVA set up by the Laboratory for Animal Health of the Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), Maisons-Alfort, France, and the Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre (CODA-CERVA), Uccle, Belgium, as the European Union reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease. It is necessary to amend that Implementing Decision, so that it refers to Sciensano, instead of CODA-CERVA. Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/136 should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,